


swallow up the flame like me

by charleybradburies



Category: NCIS
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Canon Jewish Character, Car Accidents, Car Chases, Community: 1_million_words, Community: hc_bingo, Community: ncis_drabble, Drabble, Female Jewish Character, Female-Centric, Future Fic, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, Major Character Injury, Near Future, Other, POV Female Character, POV Jewish Character, South America, Spies & Secret Agents, Unreliable Narrator, Unresolved Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-01 04:46:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5192867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Her past isn't the only thing that crashes into her.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Ziva David Appreciation Week | Day 6: Free Day</p><p>+ ncis drabble challenge #462: countdown + h/c bingo: vehicle crash</p><p>Title from Halsey's "Gasoline."</p>
            </blockquote>





	swallow up the flame like me

Moments, nothing but moments. Lives are just strings of moments, held together by chains or by pieces of yarn, or perhaps tendons, to liken people’s lives to the bodies they inhabit. Moments of pleasure, moments of pain, moments of both, moments of neither. Moments that seemed short and moments that took their not-so-sweet time. There were moments that insisted on repeating themselves, and moments that swiftly and unexpectedly changed the courses of people’s lives before giving them the chance to blink.

But moments themselves aren’t enough - how could one make the most of something they’re only going to lose sight of? It’d be impossible to drive a car if you always kept your eyes on the rearview mirror. 

Unless, of course, you were driving in reverse, in which case it could be helpful to keep your attention there. 

It’s when you don’t want to be driving backwards that it becomes...problematic. 

So it’s fitting that she’s actually at the wheel of a car when she realizes what she’s doing, that she’s jerking left as hard as she can when it hits her that there is something wrong with this picture and it’s not even the fact that she’s become a fugitive from the law whilst chasing another. 

But even as Ziva tries to redirect her attention and forget that she’s running from her past, her past isn’t the only thing that crashes into her. 

She doesn’t know where the other car comes from, but she certainly knows where it ends up: by the edge of a winding highway in Chile, jutting through the middle of her Toyota, crinkling and melting under fire. Broken pieces of metal are shattered all around the area, and Ziva can see almost nothing but flames; a glimmer of the bright black road is visible, but she and her car are on their sides and must be close enough to the road that there’s not enough grass between there and wherever she is. 

The weight of her seat begins to push against her; she tries to get herself free, and realizes she can’t even feel her legs, much less move them. Some wriggling and pushing against the dashboard seems to do her good, but it takes more energy than she’s got to maintain the movement, and she quickly tires nearly to the point of exhaustion.

Just a series of moments, and the little she still had was dwindling, soon to be gone. Her life story was not a particularly fascinating one, but surely this would be how the tragedy ended. 

It wasn’t like she’d never expected to live into her forties anyway. She’d consigned herself to die before, and she’d do it again. She didn’t need to fight the natural order of things; she’d simply overstayed her earthly welcome, yes? More than that, even - certainly she’d earned a slow, painful death. 

The last thing she thinks is that she hopes her former NCIS team never has to hear of the incident, and then she falls unconscious.


End file.
